For the wounded, a new option in your backyard

A local hospital now has two hyperbaric chambers for wound-care patients in Otero and Lincoln counties.

The wound-care center, located at Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center, will help patients with pure oxygen.

"It's oxygen therapy with pressure," said Gerald Champion respiratory therapist and hyperbaric technician Julia Curry. "What we do is we give them100-percent oxygen, put them under pressure usually water about 66-feet deep that forces the oxygen into the tissue and that speeds up healing."

Curry said the hyperbaric chambers are used for chronic wounds that are not healing properly.

"I have seen horrible wounds and we get to see (patients) get better," Curry said.

She said the majority of patients using the chambers are suffering from diabetes. When they are in the chambers, the patient is never left alone, and if Curry leaves the room, someone is always with the patient.

While hyperbaric chambers have been known for cosmetics uses, GCRMC only uses them for wound-care patients, Curry said.

Patients are able to move freely inside the chambers while watching TV and usually experience slight pressure on their eardrums, similar to swimming to the bottom of a pool. Patients also can communicate with Curry and other wound-care staff during the treatments or "dives."

The number of sessions usually depends on the severity of the wound, but Curry said, patients usually receive about 30 treatments, each lasting about two hours.

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Curry said patients usually are nervous during their first session, but she has seen patients fall asleep and become comfortable with treatments over time.

Tularosa resident Joseph Penn, program director for the wound-care center, said the new facility opened Sept. 18 with the first "dive" in October.

Penn said the hyperbaric chambers are helping about six patients a day but can help up to eight.

He added that not all patients will use the hyperbaric chambers at the new center. But those who have bone and soft-tissue infections, radiation injuries, surgical wounds that are not healing can be eligible to use them.

The main reason the hospital decided to open the wound-care center was a large number of diabetes wound patients in the area and they were traveling out of the county to receive treatment, Penn said.

Ground-breaking began about two years ago and funds for the new wound-care center came from hospital funds and didn't cost county residents, according to Lillie Lewis, marketing director at GCRMC.

Penn said the center is helping 45 patients and is seeing about three to four more patients a week.

"Three more patients are about to start with the hyperbaric chambers," Penn said.

Patients from Ruidoso, Carrizozo, Mescalero are using the new center. Penn also said the center has three referrals from Las Cruces and five from El Paso.

The wound-care center has a staff of five physicians and four staff members.

The physicians have received hyperbaric-chamber training provided by Healogics, a, outpatient wound care management company, in partnership with the hospital in the management of the wound care center.

"We are seeing great results. We are having a lot of healing," said Dr. Ferial Abood, medical director of the wound-care center.

Abood, who has been with the hospital for 10 years, said in most cases the patient's insurance or Medicare pays for the treatments.

"If it is a surgical wound, trauma cut or anything that is not healing, they can come here," Abood said.

"Everything is based on prior authorization from (patient's) insurance. They have to qualify to have these treatments."

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